The Rss Promise For Internet Users
By Rok Hrastnik, Sat Dec 10th

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

The RSS promise for end-users is simple:

--> a unified one-stop-shop to consume online content, withouthaving to visit dozens of sites every day to see what’s new andwithout having their online subscriptions interfere with theirpersonal and business e-mail communications;

--> complete control over their content consumption, including aquick, easy and reliable mechanism to unsubscribe from contentthey do not wish to receive;

--> the ability to receive breaking news as it becomesavailable, without having to wait for a monthly, weekly or dailyrecap sent to their e-mail addresses;

--> the certainty of actually receiving the content they want,without the fear of it being stopped by spam filters on the way;

--> the ability to receive rich-media content directly to theirdesktops, including audio and video content;

--> the promise of providing the tools to make their liveseasier, including receiving critical content updates as soon asthey become available.

These points are not simple enhancements, but importantadvancements that can fundamentally change how internet contentis consumed. Furthermore, these points themselves prove whymarketers need to start implementing RSS now!

To bring the point home, let us inspect some of the contentservices already powered by RSS.

LIBRARY ELF: MAKING THE LIBRARY EXPERIENCE EASIER(http://libraryelf.com/) Library Elf helps you keep track ofyour library accounts in one place and received reminders, suchas what library material is due, overdue and ready for pickup.Library Elf uses the power of RSS to help you forget about yourlibrary accounts and instead be directly notified of the changesyou’re waiting for, directly to your desktop.

INDEED: HELPING YOUR FIND THE RIGHT JOB (http://www.indeed.com/)Indeed.com provides its visitors with job seeking results fromhundreds of sites and then makes the search results accessiblevia RSS feeds. Users can subscribe to individual search results,pertaining directly to their search keywords to be notifiedimmediately new jobs are available.

FLICKR: SHARING YOUR LIFE IN PICTURE (http://www.flickr.com/)Flickr is the most popular photography management and sharingservice on the web, enabling end-users to upload their photosand then make them available to their friends, associates andfamily through a wide assortment of content delivery channels,including RSS. By subscribing to individual Flickr feeds fromtheir users, everyone can have direct access to the latest lifeexperiences from their friends.

RSSCALENDAR: SHARING YOUR EVENTS (http://www.rsscalendar.com/)rssCalendar.com allows individuals and companies to share theirpersonal or group calendars with the rest of the world, lettingeveryone that matters know of where and what they are doingnext, delivering this information via individual RSS feeds.

COUPONS.COM: SAVINGS TO YOUR DESKTOP (http://www.coupons.com/)Coupons.com

brings the best deals and coupons to internetend-users, helping them save money by discounted shopping. As oflate, they also started delivering coupons through RSS feeds,giving their subscribers direct access to their latest offerings.

PUBSUB.COM: TRACKING THE WORLD (http://www.pubsub.com)PubSub.com is an amazing service that allows you to trackpractically everything going on around the world by matchingyour keywords with tens of thousands of online content sources,and enabling you to subscribe to your customized search resultsthrough customized RSS feeds.

RSSAUCTION.COM: TRACKING YOUR PURCHASE INTERESTS(http://rssauction.com/) If you’re a regular eBay user, youcertainly want to keep track of new products available, whichprecisely match your interests. rssAuction.com helps users keepbetter track of eBay by giving them a tool to first create acomprehensive list of product requirements and then deliveringthe search result through an RSS feed. As soon as new productsmatching individual interests appear, the user is notified ofthat through his RSS aggregator, giving him the ability to startbidding immediately and without having to visit eBay every dayto find the right products.

UPCOMING.ORG: KEEPING TRACK OF LOCAL AND SOCIAL EVENTS(http://upcoming.org/) From the Upcoming.org website:“Upcoming.org is a collaborative event calendar, completelydriven by people like you. Enter in the events you're attending,comment on events entered by others, and syndicate eventlistings to your own weblog. As Upcoming.org learns more aboutthe events you enjoy, it will suggest new events you never wouldhave heard about.”

FEEDBEEP: THE ULTIMATE “TIME-TO-INFORMATION” TOOL(http://www.feedbeep.com/) Depending on who you are and yourcurrent life situation, many content alerts are critical foryou. If you’re looking for a job, you want to know immediatelywhen a new one matching your precise interests is available, andso on. While RSS brings this information to your desktop, thatmight not be fast enough. Feedbeep.com takes internet contentdelivery one step further, by empowering users to have theircritical content updates delivered from an RSS feed directly totheir mobile phones via SMS.

RSS EMPOWERS CONSUMERS

The one thing all of these RSS-based or RSS-empowered serviceshave in common is that they empower consumers.

They empower them by getting the content that matters to themdelivered directly to their desktops or online contentaggregators, but still giving them the power to unsubscribewithin moments of not being satisfied with the content they arereceiving.

Even more so, these services empower consumers to create socialnetworks and easily share their information with their friends,family and associates on a large scale.

About the author:Rok Hrastnik is the author of »Unleash the Marketing &Publishing Power of RSS«, acclaimed as the best and mostcomprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts.The complete guide on RSS for marketers:http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa11